(originally posted on 8/1/18 on Slack)

jaydee [4 months ago]
NOTE: If you have more than one website, you will need to submit a sitemap for each of them independently. Every website is different.

However, you should have just ONE Google Search Console account. You can add multiple websites to that account, and then switch between websites in the reports. NO NEED to have more than one Google Search Console account.

Can you tell me if I am supposed to add this or anything for that matter to google console?: sitemap_index.xml....I found a site that said to add that but when I did it said couldnt fetch.  I did submit my shopify shop to google months ago.  this is what i see:

I've been reading all that I can and am not sure what I am supposed to add / if anything. thank you!  ...i'm thinking since it's already showing i dont add the sitemap index thing.  what led me to ask is I"m wondering if i need to submit an image sitemap or anything?  I'm beginning to wondering if there is something I'm missing since I  have no organic views at all 🙁

does it hurt me to have products listed in 2 collections?  does that confuse google?

does it hurt me to have same photos in etsy and shopify as far as google/seo?

Hi @p -

Sitemap

Submitting your sitemap to Google is not necessary, as Google will eventually find it, but I do recommend doing so - that way you know for sure Google has it.

Your sitemap is in the format of .... sitemap.xml
In your example in your note above, you have sitemap_index.xml
Make sure you correct this to just sitemap.xml

Once you submit the correct format, Google will index that sitemap and you'll be able to take advantage of the Google Search Console reports. 

Google (and other search engines) will find your images, so you don't need to submit a separate sitemap for them. Everything in your store is covered with your general sitemap. 

Organic Search Traffic

To find your organic search traffic, you'll need Google Analytics.

Go to your Google Analytics account, then choose Acquisition, then Overview. From there, you will see a pie chart that shows you where traffic is coming from to your website. Adjust the timeframe for the report (upper-right corner of that screen) as needed. 

If you have little to no organic traffic to your website, this indicates that customers are not finding your store by doing searches, and means you need to change your product titles and descriptions to use keywords that customers would use to find your products. This is where keyword research is important.

Rather than changing every single title and description of your products at one time, start with the products that DO see the most traffic. Perfect those titles and descriptions and monitor the effectiveness of traffic generated as a result of the change. Once you see what keywords are converting, you can change more and more of your products to fall in line with what a customer uses for searches. 

While you definitely want traffic from a variety of sources, organic traffic should make up a good chunk of your traffic. You can control this amount just by tweaking your product titles and descriptions (and their SEO preview information). You won't notice changes overnight, but over the course of two weeks or more, you will start to see improvements to your organic traffic numbers. 

Multiple Collections

Having products in multiple collections isn't a bad thing - especially if it helps customers find what they are looking for, versus just putting products in multiple collections for more exposure. Basically, if it makes sense and is user friendly to have more than one collection, it's fine.

As far as SEO goes, each collection has it's own URL, so search engines will see that and it will make it appear that the item is two different things, in some ways. Because the URLs are not the same, you're not duplicating content, so won't be penalized because of that. No worries. Google and other search engines understand the organization of a website because of collections, so it all sorts out in the end. 

Same Photos

Having the same photos on both Etsy and in your Shopify store won't cause problems. Each image has a different URL, so even though the image itself is the same, search engines see the full path and recognizes it's not a duplicate. 

I also personally think using the same photo can be a good thing, as it helps your branding. When a customer does an image search for one of your store items, they may see the search results for both your Etsy shop and your Shopify website - so they can choose where to complete their purchase. It's almost like getting twice the exposure - if you want to think of it that way. 

I hope this information helps!

thank you JD